Govt on its toes; Rajnath assesses situation, PM meets ministers

New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday chaired a high-level meet to discuss a possible response to the audacious attack on an Indian military base camp in Uri in the early hours of Sunday that killed 17 jawans.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval and top officials of the ministries of Home and Defence, Army, paramilitary forces and chiefs of intelligence agencies briefed Singh on the latest ground report in the Kashmir Valley as well as along the Line of Control, official sources said.

Possible strategies to deal with the fresh challenges arising out of the terror attack at the Army Brigade Headquarters, located along the LoC, was also discussed in the meeting, sources said.

Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, who postponed his visit to Srinagar, also attended the meeting.

The Home Minister and the top officials reviewed the security situation across the country, particular along the western border — from Punjab to Gujarat, the sources said.

Later, the PM met Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, Army Chief Dalbir Singh Suhag and NSA Ajit Doval, along with Parrikar at his residence on 7 Race Course Road in New Delhi.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj however was not part of either meeting, said reports.

Union Minister Kiren Rijiju said India will carefully decide its future course of action in the aftermath of the terror attack in Uri and will not do anything on the basis of what Pakistan says.

“We must not pay heed to Pakistan’s reaction. Everything is in front of the people. We will take our next steps carefully. It does not matter what Pakistan says,” he told reporters here.

A team of the National Investigation Agency (NIA) will reach Uri on Monday and begin its inquiry into the deadliest attack on the Army in 14 years.

Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Monday paid tribute to the martryed jawans by laying wreaths on the coffins of the martyred soldiers at a somber ceremony held at headquarters of the Chinar Corps.

In a major terror attack, seventeen Army jawans and officers were killed and twenty more wounded in Uri close to the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla district on Sunday. All the four terrorists involved in the pre-dawn attack at an Army base in the area were also killed in Army’s retaliatory fire, ending a 5-hour-long fight at around 8 am.

A group of four heavily armed militants attacked a battalion centre close to the Army’s 12 Infantry Brigade headquarters on the peripheries of Uri town, 102-km northwest of capital Srinagar, around 3 am. The area falls in close proximity to the LoC from three sides-Hajipir, Kamalkot and Kaman post and the 12 Infantry Brigade is spread over a couple of dozen acres of sloppy land midst pine woods on both sides of the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road. The firing stopped at 8 am after all the terrorists were neutralised.

Director General of Military Operations (DGMO) held Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) terrorists responsible for the attack and said that weapons with Pakistani markings were found on the dead terrorists.

India blamed Pakistan for the attack, an allegation which Pakistan angrily refuted. Pakistan claimed that India’s charges were “totally baseless and irresponsible.”

Pakistan claimed that India had a ‘history of blaming Pakistan’ after every terror attack.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday said that Pakistan should be declared a terrorist state.

Military experts have called for India to keep open the military solution to Pakistani aggression across the border, after the Uri attack.

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